Medicine 2012 hopeful entrants II

I'm currently on a gap year and got an offer at King's... somehow. Did you get any interviews?

Oooh well done!

Oh congrats!! Just one (Barts)



Thanks!!

Thanks!

Don't worry. I only had one interview last year and that was at Barts. I didn't prepare properly and just gave generally poor answers. This was what I did for this year.

Preparation for interviews

Books:

Medical School Interviews (By George Lee and Olivier Picard (ISCmedical)):

I used this book a lot! In actual fact, I think I answered every question. It's a brilliant book that shows you how to build answers that appear structured, giving the impression to the interviewers that you know what you're talking about it. Their sample answers are theoretically good and you will be overwhelmed when you answer the questions yourself and make a comparison; however, their sample answers are incredibly contrived so don't worry.

Succeed in Your Medical School Interview (Dr Christopher See):

I bought this book as an 'insurance'. They're incredibly similar, however, this book provides you with additional questions that don't appear in the former book. I suppose it also gives you a different perspective in how to answer certain questions.

Medical Ethics (Tony Hope):

If you're genuinely interested in the ethical aspects of medicine or if you know that your interviews place a particular emphasis on ethics then this book should be good. It isn't necessarily needed, however, it does give you a very detailed understanding of medical ethics.

What I did with these resources:

My first protocol was to divide the questions into sections. You'll see a certain style;

1) Motivation/Insight into medicine
2) Skills
3) Knowledge/understanding of common themes in medicine
4) Ethical principles

After doing so, I read the beginning part of both books: How to make your answers interesting. These books both place a significant importance on how you should structure your personalised answers and to be fair, it's the personalised and structured answers that get the offers.

I made my way through each question, gaining the knowledge and understanding in order to answer each of them effectively. After I read the books, I typed up my answers to each question on Word; of course, each answer wasn't word to word, they were general ideas bullet-pointed.

Doing the above will place you at a massive advantage!

Courses:

ISCmedical

I attended the group course. I personally felt that it was really good, especially if you needed to build up your confidence. It is expensive, however, for me money was no object as all I ever wanted was just an 'offer'. To some, I don't think it could be much use however, for me, I gathered the initial confidence that I was able to build up on.

Research:

It is paramount that you invest time in finding more about your universities. I visited King's a couple of weeks before my actual interview and it genuinely motivated me to work just a wee bit harder for my interview. Not only that, you'll find out more about your university by talking to other medical students and seeing it for yourself; read the prospectus, and find out what other people have to say about it, read threads on forums, look at the student unions/clubs and find out what your university has to offer to you, read up on any new research conducted by that university, learn the course structure.

And of course, you should be doing some light-reading anyway. Read up on any current issues using BBC health, Telegraph health, BMA and so on. Whenever I read an article that interested me, I'd write it back up on my notepad, dated it and sourced it. Hence, highlighting the importance of keeping organised by keeping folders of any articles you've read up on.

Personal statement

Know your personal statement inside out! Any diseases you talked about, you must know everything about them; the screening, prognosis, treatment, diagnosis, etc,. You'd also have to be prepared to talk about anything on your personal statement in great depth.

Most importantly; remain calm, keep smiling and show them how much it means to you!

Entered myself into the Easter baking/cooking competition

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1952472&page=6&p=36962121#post36962121

Omg yum!

Now I expect you to come to my house and bake me cakes - whether you want to or not

Haha thanks

Oh is it now?

Absolutely! You start tomorrow at 0900. You shall be paid in empty yoghurt pots and egg-shells

Ahhhhhh just found not one, but TWO frogs in the house

Me and my brother found on upstairs whilst my mum and dad found one downstairs by chance at the same time... so on edge now! No sleep for me :'(

... Just thought I'd share this with you all

Ahhhhhh just found not one, but TWO frogs in the house

Me and my brother found on upstairs whilst my mum and dad found one downstairs by chance at the same time... so on edge now! No sleep for me :'(

... Just thought I'd share this with you all

Ahhhhhh just found not one, but TWO frogs in the house

Me and my brother found on upstairs whilst my mum and dad found one downstairs by chance at the same time... so on edge now! No sleep for me :'(

... Just thought I'd share this with you all

Hypothetically, if you haven't made your mind up about whether or not you want to do medicine or physics. Could you do a physics degree and then go into medicine if you decided it wasn't for you?

Emergency! Emergency!

Emergency! Emergency!

Ya huh?

o.O ?

Hi, err

I need to talk to someone ASAP who is patient, not judge-mental, can remain objective, mature, and have an open-minded view of the world and of situations..especially weird ones..

Hi, err

I need to talk to someone ASAP who is patient, not judge-mental, can remain objective, mature, and have an open-minded view of the world and of situations..especially weird ones..